In Book VI of the Odyssey, Odysseus uses several carefully chosen words, images, and compliments that become heavily influential in the overall enticement of the young, naïve princess Nausikaa. Odysseus has recently endured the rigorous journey across the ocean and upon waking up the next morning, overhears loud outcries from the princess and her maidens after losing a ball that was being passed around. He contemplates the possibilities of who these strangers might be, however, given further examination
encounter with the Laistrygones is a useful reference point for analyzing the nature of guest-host relationships in The Odyssey. When it is compared with his arrivals at the lands of the Phaiakians and the hands of the Cyclopes, a fuller picture of Odysseus and the customs of his time emerges; in addition, this reveals some of Homer's more adroit storytelling techniques. To regard The Odyssey as the tale of one man's wanderings, as many do, is to ignore half its importance; it is also the story of his stops